What Should Be the Key Emphasis of Civil and Moral Instruction?
Key Concept: The laws of civil and moral life are to be lived as Divine laws from God (Divine Providence 322).
It shall now be told how a civil and moral life is a receptacle of spiritual life: Live these laws, not only as civil and moral laws, but also as Divine laws, and you will be a spiritual man. Scarcely a nation exists so barbarous as not to have prohibited by laws murder, adultery with the wife of another, theft, false-witness, and injury to what is another's. The civil and moral man observes these laws, that he may be, or may seem to be, a good citizen; but if he does not also regard these laws as Divine he is merely a civil and moral natural man; while if he does also regard them as Divine he becomes a civil and moral spiritual man. The difference is that the latter is both a good citizen of the earthly kingdom and a good citizen of the heavenly kingdom; while the former is a good citizen of the earthly kingdom only, and not of the heavenly kingdom…. [3] From all this it can be seen that as every man was born that he might become a civil and moral natural man, so, too, he was born that he might become a civil and moral spiritual man; and this is done simply by his acknowledging God and not doing evil because it is against God, but doing good because it is accordant with God (Divine Providence 322:2-3).
As few know what it is to live a moral life from a spiritual origin, and what it is to apply the knowledges of truth and good from the Word to the uses of their life, it shall be told. Man lives a moral life from a spiritual origin when he lives it from religion; that is, when he thinks, when anything evil, insincere, or unjust presents itself, that this must not be done because it is contrary to the Divine laws (Apocalypse Explained 195:2).
[In the first state of a new church] the Lord is unknown to them, but nevertheless, because they live in the good of charity, and in what is just and equitable as to civil life, and in what is honorable and becoming as to moral life, they are such that the Lord can be with them. For the Lord's presence with man is in good, and therefore in what is just and equitable, and further in what is honorable and becoming (what is honorable being the complex of all the moral virtues; and what is becoming being simply its form); for these are goods which succeed in order, and are the planes in man on which conscience is founded by the Lord, and consequently intelligence and wisdom (Arcana Coelestia 2915).
No idea can be had of spiritual life except from the things that are in civil life; and therefore if the latter is set aside, the former falls to the ground, until at last it is no longer believed in. This is clearly evident from the fact that it is no longer believed that spirits and angels associate and converse together as men do, and reason as men do about what is honorable and becoming, just and fair, and good and true, and this much more perfectly (Arcana Coelestia 4366:2).
Man is permitted to think about evils ... even so far as to purpose to do them, in order that they may be removed by means of civil, moral, and spiritual things; and this is done when he thinks that a thing is contrary to what is just and equitable, to what is honorable and becoming, and to good and truth; thus contrary to the tranquility, the joy, and the blessedness of life. By means of these three, civil and moral and spiritual things, the Lord heals the love of man's will, first by means of fears, and afterwards by means of loves (Divine Providence 283).
Those who renounce the world and live in the spirit… acquire a sorrowful life that is not receptive of heavenly joy, since every one's life continues the same after death. On the contrary, to receive the life of heaven a man must needs live in the world and engage in its duties and employments, and by means of a moral and civil life there receive the spiritual life. In no other way can the spiritual life be formed in man, or his spirit prepared for heaven; for to live an internal life and not at the same time an external life is like dwelling in a house that has no foundation, that gradually sinks or becomes cracked and rent asunder, or totters till it falls (Heaven and Hell 528).
The spiritual life is not a life separated from natural life or the life of the world, but is joined with it as the soul is joined with its body ... . For moral and civil life is the active plane of the spiritual life, since to will well is the province of the spiritual life, and to act well of the moral and civil life, and if the latter is separated from the former the spiritual life consists solely of thought and speech, and the will, left with no support, recedes; and yet the will is the very spiritual part of man (Heaven and Hell 529).
What Should Be the Key Emphasis of Civil and Moral Instruction?
Key Concept: The laws of civil and moral life are to be lived as Divine laws from God (Divine Providence 322).
It shall now be told how a civil and moral life is a receptacle of spiritual life: Live these laws, not only as civil and moral laws, but also as Divine laws, and you will be a spiritual man. Scarcely a nation exists so barbarous as not to have prohibited by laws murder, adultery with the wife of another, theft, false-witness, and injury to what is another's. The civil and moral man observes these laws, that he may be, or may seem to be, a good citizen; but if he does not also regard these laws as Divine he is merely a civil and moral natural man; while if he does also regard them as Divine he becomes a civil and moral spiritual man. The difference is that the latter is both a good citizen of the earthly kingdom and a good citizen of the heavenly kingdom; while the former is a good citizen of the earthly kingdom only, and not of the heavenly kingdom…. [3] From all this it can be seen that as every man was born that he might become a civil and moral natural man, so, too, he was born that he might become a civil and moral spiritual man; and this is done simply by his acknowledging God and not doing evil because it is against God, but doing good because it is accordant with God (Divine Providence 322:2-3).
As few know what it is to live a moral life from a spiritual origin, and what it is to apply the knowledges of truth and good from the Word to the uses of their life, it shall be told. Man lives a moral life from a spiritual origin when he lives it from religion; that is, when he thinks, when anything evil, insincere, or unjust presents itself, that this must not be done because it is contrary to the Divine laws (Apocalypse Explained 195:2).
[In the first state of a new church] the Lord is unknown to them, but nevertheless, because they live in the good of charity, and in what is just and equitable as to civil life, and in what is honorable and becoming as to moral life, they are such that the Lord can be with them. For the Lord's presence with man is in good, and therefore in what is just and equitable, and further in what is honorable and becoming (what is honorable being the complex of all the moral virtues; and what is becoming being simply its form); for these are goods which succeed in order, and are the planes in man on which conscience is founded by the Lord, and consequently intelligence and wisdom (Arcana Coelestia 2915).
No idea can be had of spiritual life except from the things that are in civil life; and therefore if the latter is set aside, the former falls to the ground, until at last it is no longer believed in. This is clearly evident from the fact that it is no longer believed that spirits and angels associate and converse together as men do, and reason as men do about what is honorable and becoming, just and fair, and good and true, and this much more perfectly (Arcana Coelestia 4366:2).
Man is permitted to think about evils ... even so far as to purpose to do them, in order that they may be removed by means of civil, moral, and spiritual things; and this is done when he thinks that a thing is contrary to what is just and equitable, to what is honorable and becoming, and to good and truth; thus contrary to the tranquility, the joy, and the blessedness of life. By means of these three, civil and moral and spiritual things, the Lord heals the love of man's will, first by means of fears, and afterwards by means of loves (Divine Providence 283).
Those who renounce the world and live in the spirit… acquire a sorrowful life that is not receptive of heavenly joy, since every one's life continues the same after death. On the contrary, to receive the life of heaven a man must needs live in the world and engage in its duties and employments, and by means of a moral and civil life there receive the spiritual life. In no other way can the spiritual life be formed in man, or his spirit prepared for heaven; for to live an internal life and not at the same time an external life is like dwelling in a house that has no foundation, that gradually sinks or becomes cracked and rent asunder, or totters till it falls (Heaven and Hell 528).
The spiritual life is not a life separated from natural life or the life of the world, but is joined with it as the soul is joined with its body ... . For moral and civil life is the active plane of the spiritual life, since to will well is the province of the spiritual life, and to act well of the moral and civil life, and if the latter is separated from the former the spiritual life consists solely of thought and speech, and the will, left with no support, recedes; and yet the will is the very spiritual part of man (Heaven and Hell 529).
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